Many Pay After Boy Is Caught Gambling

Board Fines Boat, Punishes Family

An executive of a riverboat casino that allowed a 12-year-old boy to gamble offered no excuses Tuesday. He did, however, offer a description of the youthful bettor.

"He was about 5-foot-7, 160 pounds and had a mustache," said Richard Knight, executive vice president of the Hollywood Casino-Aurora.

It's not clear whether the boy was winning while playing craps on April 11, but it became certain Tuesday that by letting him try his luck, the casino lost-and lost big.

Other losers in the affair were the boy's stepfather and uncle, who brought him to the casino and who have now been been barred from boarding any gaming riverboat in the state.

The Illinois Gaming Board fined the riverboat operators $150,000, because its security measures failed to stop the boy from entering the casino and playing dice for three hours before employees became suspicious.

Under state law, casinos are off limits to anyone under 21.

The fine was the second-highest levied by the gaming board since the first riverboat casino opened in Illinois four years ago. Knight called it "a lot of money," but said he doubts the casino will appeal.

Members of the gaming board, the agency that regulates the state's 10 riverboat casinos, took turns bemoaning the embarrassment suffered by the industry.

The board's chairman, J. Thomas Johnson, said it could have "a grievous impact on the integrity of gaming in Illinois." He asked the board's administrator, Michael Belletire, to review the procedures used by the state's riverboats to screen for under-age customers.

"It was a flagrant violation, and we just could not fathom how that incident occurred," Johnson said. "No explanation is sufficient. He looks like a relatively mature 12-year-old. But he doesn't look 21 years old."

Knight said the boy apparently managed to slip through security procedures because a guard at the boarding site was distracted while helping a disabled customer.

The riverboat has since beefed up the training it provides guards and has doubled the number of employees posted at boarding sites on weekends and other busy evenings, Knight said. As a hedge, customers who appear younger than 25 get stamped on the hand after proving their age so that gaming employees will have no doubts about allowing them to gamble, he said.

That said, Knight apologized to the board.

"To call it unfortunate is certainly an understatement," he said. "To call it absurd is perhaps more like it."

In addition to being "blacklisted" from boarding any riverboat casino in the future, the boy's stepfather, identified as Bob Frio of Berwyn, was fined $100 by a Kane County judge last month for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The boy and his uncle were not charged with any wrongdoing.